LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 

Sheif^TaLS 



UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



PHICE, 25 OE3STTS. 



0RLE3TU3 C. TRISLER'S 



LECTURE 




$ 




j g^-w 6 



PRESS OF GEO. P. HOUSTON, PUBLISHER, CINCINNATI. 



LIGHTS m SHADOWS, 



LECTURE 



-BY- 



Orlestus C. Trisler.' 



COPYRIGHTED I» 



PRESS OF GEO, P. HOUSTON, PUBLISHER, CINC 




ORLESTUS C. TRISLER 

is prepared to make a few 
engagements to lecture on 

"Lights and Shadows," 

U T " 

h 

"Woman's Rights," 
" Evolution I Revelation- 
Creator and Creation." 



Address 

ORLESTUS C. TRISLER, 

54 Cha^e Avenue, 
Station A, Cincinnati, O. 



Public Opinion says : "Trisler is a platform geniu-.' r 
" He carries his audience with a vim and dash." He is a 
young man of remarkable, almost phenomenal power," 






|^S INDEX. 



PAGE. 

A Spring Day 9 

Day of Human Life 12 

Work — The Law of our Being 13 

Men of Fate 15 

Liberty and Law 17 

Over- Grown Infants 19 

Brevities 20 

Unequal Conditions 24 

The Home 32 

Life is a Drama 36 

A Man's the Degree for a' That 38 

Education Eternal 42 

Bulwarks of Knowledge 43 

The Magnanimous Man 51 

Age of Man 52 

Century of Magnanimous Magnanimity 56 

Hope of the Future 60 

(3) 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 



Orlestus Clement Trlsler was born Oct. 
13, 1865, in Brown Co., 0. The days of his 
youth were spent on the farm, where, during 
the summer, he did the chores, helped till the 
soil, and eagerly employed every leisure mo- 
ment in his literary studies. Never was he 
without the companionship which history, 
language, and mathematics afforded. While 
in the corn-field, Ridpath's United States 
History was read, and the mid-night lamp 
frequently found the boy of twelve years 
conning Holbrook's English Grammar, or 
deep in the problems of Ray's Algebra. 
During the winter he attended the country 
school. The early training given him by his 
parents was characterized by that practical 
Christianity which believes that habits of 
usefulness should be inculcated in childhood. 

Such was Orlestus' aptness, diligence, and 

(5) 



6 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 

ambition, that at the age of fifteen, he had 
obtained a certificate from the County Ex- 
aminers, and engaged a school near Sardinia, 
O., where he was retained two years, and was 
called " the boy teacher." During the sum- 
mer of 1882, he attended the National Normal 
University, at Lebanon, 0. He then con- 
tinued teaching and going to school alter- 
nately, and at the age of eighteen was made 
principal of the Mt. Orab Public Schools, 
being the junior teacher. After holding this 
position one term, he resigned and entered 
the Ohio Wesleyan University, at Delaware, 
0. Here he was a student one year, and dis- 
tinguished himself in the Philomathean 
Literary Society. As a text-book student 
he did not excel, attending classes rather 
irregularly. His fort was independent read- 
ing and thinking. He went on the principle 
that in an important sense, no one is taught 
except so far as he is self-taught. He could 
not deal with minutia, he must generalize, 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 7 

study great problems — scan great questions. 
He had a desire to attend different institu- 
tions of learning, observe different systems 
of school government, compare methods of 
teaching, and believed that a change of influ- 
ences would render him more liberal both in 
his religious and educational views, and 
general sentiments as well. Accordingly he 
went from Delaware to Ada, 0., entered Ada 
University, and was soon recognized to be 
one of its leading orators. Here he gradu- 
ated at the age of twenty, and then continued 
in school for some time, taking special Post 
Graduate studies. At the age of twenty-one, 
he accepted the principalship of Augusta 
College, Augusta, Ky., being again the 
youngest teacher of the institution, and hav- 
ing five teachers and three hundred pupils 
under his supervision. So successful was he 
here that his work excited no little attention, 
and won for him an enviable reputation as 
an educator. His aspirations, plans, and 



8 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 

purposes were" such, however, that he finally 
gave up the profession of teaching, and is 
now pursuing an extensive course of reading 
in the Cincinnati Library. 

A firm believer in the theory of evolution, 
he is also a devoted adherent to " the faith of 
the fathers." To-day there is no more beau- 
tiful feature in the character of the man, than 
his reverence for the principles inculcated by 
his honored parents, and his ready and glad 
recognition of the debt owed to the purity of 
a mother's influence. 

Not the least among his attainments is his 
genius as a public speaker. A ready and 
far-reaching command of language, combined 
with personal magnetism and marked elocu- 
tionary power, renders him popular and 
effective as a platform lecturer. 

A. B. Brooks. 
Cincinnati, 0., Sept. 24, 1889. 



LIGHTS AND SHADOWS. 



Imagine a beautiful Spring morning. The 
first faint light of day-break is just beginning 
to dawn, and on the distant horizon the east- 
ern sky is resplendent with the golden rays of 
a glorious sunrise. 

Each tree and tiny bush is donning its garb 
of delicate green ; meadows and hillsides are 
beautiful with their soft, velvety carpet; and 
on every leaflet and tiny grass blade sparkles 
diamonds of dew. 

The birds are warbling sweet melodies in 
every tree-top, and all Nature's orchestra, so 
long silenced by icicles and frost, are singing 
praises to their Maker in the early morning 
sunlight. 

The quiet gurgle of the laughing streamlet, 
as it gaily dances through the valley and 
among the rocks, over the pebbles, adds a 
pleasant accompaniment to earth's glad choir. 

The air is laden with the sweet perfume of 
apple blossoms, and busy bees hasten on their 
mission, culling sweets from every blossom. 

(9) 



10 Trisler's lecture on 

In the meadows, herds and flocks feed upon 
tender herbs; bleating lambs playfully skip 
to and fro, and all nature rejoices in return- 
ing spring. 

In the early morning, man himself goes 
forth with renewed vigor and strength, per- 
forming his daily tasks. 

Soon the busy household is awakened; mer- 
ry voices of happy children ring out through 
the clear air, and the day has truly begun. 

The great, red sun steadily rises, gradually 
attaining the zenith of his glory, shedding 
his piercing rays in every direction, penetrat- 
ing many a fathomless depth. 

As the noon-day heat becomes excessive, 
the kine instinctively seek the cooling shades 
of the rocky dales, quenching their thirst at 
the sequestered pool wherein is mirrored the 
pale blue sky and towering tree-tops — where 
fishes fearlessly play about, and the water- 
cress spreads in rich profusion. 

Over the distant hills echo the mellow 
notes of the dinner-horn, and, the noon-day 
repast over, the laborers return to the fields ; 
the sun begins his downward course, show- 
ing that the day is half spent. 



RIGHTS AND SHADOWS. 11 

But suddenly, as so often occurs on a warm 
spring day, the western sky and southern 
wind show signs of an approaching storm, 
and soon the rain patters quickly upon the 
roof and window-panes. The clouds lower, 
the gray, rugged Nimbus pours its waters 
upon the earth, the winds whistle in the 
chimneys, scattering the dust in every direc- 
tion, and the spring shower rages in all its 
glory, drenching the thirsty earth until every 
sluice runs a diminutive river. " April showers 
bring forth May flowers ; " the parched earth 
revives, and before the powerful luminary of 
day scud the angry clouds, piling themselves 
in monstrous heaps against the sky, assum- 
ing shapes grotesque and weird. The sun 
creeps down his golden ladder, slowly reach- 
ing its last round. 

The village clock tolls the hour of six ; 
husbands, brothers and friends return home 
to rest from their day's labor. As the evening 
twilight gathers, the happy family assembles 
beneath the wide-spreading elms, to while 
away a little time in pleasant conversation. 

A few neighbors join in merry company. 
One by one the golden candles are lighted in 



12 trisusr's lecture on 

the heavens, the twinkling, starry eyes of 
the azure-tinted firmament sparkle as a 
thousand costly gems. 

Nature's million voices shouted gaily, and 
the woods with their rustic temples and 
silvan statues re-echo the music of the 
birds and of those green-coated musicians, 
the frogs, as they croak their mournful dirge 
from the marshes. 

The silver-faced moon rolls listlessly in its 
orbit, the roses and the lilies fill the evening 
zephyrs with sweet perfumes, the tulips 
droop their heads in slumber, the pansies 
and blue-eyed forget-me-nots uphold their 
quaint faces, nodding to the stars. 

DAY OF HUMAN LIFE. 

This day, methinks, is fittingly typical of 
the ideal journey of human life. The day 
of human life has its morning, its noon-day, 
its evening, its twilight, and then comes 
night. But unlike the natural day, it em- 
braces in its comprehensiveness a just return 
of sunshine and storm, of success and failure, 
of Lights and Shadows, as the result of 
individual perseverance and effort. By the 



LIGHTS AND SHADOWS. 13 

right individual elements at work, it, too, 
can be made an ideal day — a day of sunshine 
and joy. 

We rise in the morning of life full of rosy 
expectations and egotistical anticipations. 
We set forward with spirit and hope. We 
imagine we see behind the curtain that 
shrouds the future gardens of pleasure 
and the beacon light of fame. But unless 
we -execute as well as plan, and work as well 
as dream, our lives will eventuate nothing 
but the shadows of blighted hopes; and 
anon the sun creeps down behind the occi- 
dental clouds, and in the evening twilight 
we take a glimpse at the past, bid adieu to 
the living, and with forgotten names are 
consigned into the City of the Dead — to 
sleep beneath the quiet stars. 

WORK THE LAW OF OUR BEING 

Work is the law of our being — the living 
principle that carries men and nations on- 
ward. Motion is life — stand-stillism is death. 
All that is great in man comes through labor, 
and the light of a glorious civilization is its 
product. It is idleness that is the curse o 



14 TRISI,ER'S IyKCTURE on 

man — not labor. Idleness eats the heart out 
of men as of nations, and consumes them as 
rust does iron. But how many there are 
who entertain the mistaken idea that, through 
mere luck and chance, and without the sum- 
moning of any individual effort, they can 
win the prize of life and reach the goal of 
their ambition ! And so do men drift with 
the tide, helplessly about over the billows, 
vainly expecting that ere long some favorable 
breeze will spring up and launch their boat 
upon the harbor of fortune and renown. 

Those who wait for the tide to land their 
boat upon the shore are soon carried out 
into dangerous waters, where the " white- 
caps" lash them 'round and 'round, and thus 
are they wrecked and go down between the 
icebergs of life's tempestuous sea. 

You have heard of the man that got to 
heaven. It was rather a long journey. 
When he arrived at the gate — the entrance 
of heaven — Peter was there, and said to 
him : " Hold on a moment ; I'd like to ask 
you a few questions. Did you ever belong 
to church?" " No ; I never joined them." 
" Did you ever read the Bible any ? " " No ; 



UGHTS AND SHADOWS. l5 

I never read it much." " Well, did you ever 
go to meeting any ? " " No ; I usually sat 
on the porch and watched the other folks go 
to meeting." " Then you may just take this 
stool ; please sit down and watch the other 
folks go into heaven." 

There are men to-day sitting on the stool 
of do-nothing, watching the world go on 
before them, with her lawyers, doctors, his- 
torians, statesmen, men of all callings, achiev- 
ing honor and distinction. Sit there, sit 
there, sit there ; but when the snow of age 
invades them, and the shadows of the even- 
ing twilight are falling, they realize impor- 
tunely that — 

" Life is real ! Life is earnest ! " 

MEN OF FATE. 

There is a sanguine idea now afloat upon 
the breezes, and entertained by clubs of radi- 
cal, shallow-minded thinkers, that we are all 
born in subjection to one great, immutable, 
pre-existent law of fate and circumstances ; 
prior to all our devices, and prior to all our 
contrivances; paramount to all our ideas, 
and all our sensations; antecedent to our 



16 Trisler's lecture otf 

very existence, by which we are knit and 
controlled in the great eternal frame of the 
universe, and out of which we can never stir; 
operated upon and governed by the wires 
and levers of the resistless circumstances of 
the hour, and succumbing to the behests of 
fate and immutable law, — all hastening down 
through the corridors of time, either into 
the carnival of an eternal cess-pool of ruin, 
or, albeit, into perpetual happiness and 
flowery beds of ease. 

Methinks these so-called men of fate, luck, 
and chance — all the idlers and gamblers, 
travel in the same boat. They have the 
devil for their helmsman, and when he steers 
them far out upon the restless, devouring 
sea, where the rolling waves and roaring 
billows mock the cry of thousands, and speak 
only of w^rath and terror — they hoist a white 
flag, upon whose folds is written that warn- 
ing sentiment, "The past has deceived us; 
the present torments us ; the future terrifies 
us." It is true indeed that all things are 
governed by law, and the violation of law 
means punishment. Without law all would 
be chaos. With law we have kosmos, or 



UGHTS AND SHADOWS. 17 

harmonious order. The whole creative uni- 
verse rests upon law. And while our lives 
are thus operated upon, and thereby 
preserved, we are, nevertheless, endowed 
with discriminative, and deliberative facul- 
ties, and latent powers, which are de- 
veloped by contact with the external world, 
through the medium of our corporeal senses, 
and by which we are capable of acting, 
choosing, deciding, judging, and reasoning 
upon things as they fall under our observa- 
tion, and out of which our individuality and 
responsibility emanate. 

LIBERTY AND LAW. 

But there is another class of men in this 
country whom I denominate centrifugal, 
red-flagged anarchists, composed mostly of 
the slums of creation ; who hold to the idea, 
that men are free only in proportion as they 
are without restraint— that so long as they 
are under law they are'without liberty — that 
liberty means absence of law. 

Now, no one can rightfully claim liberty to 
do that which is wrong. The law only re- 
strains him from wrong — but it also protects 



18 trisi^er's lecture on 

him from wrong-doings on the part of 
others. The law forbids him to murder — 
forbids him to steal, but that does not abridge 
his liberty, for he never had a right to 
murder, or to steal. Therefore, so far as law 
restrains him from doing wrong, it does not 
interfere with his liberty. No one has a 
right to do that which is inconsistent with 
the welfare of society. Not only does law 
forbid wrong-doing but also furnishes pro- 
tection, or security, which is the essential 
element of civil liberty. Sir James Mackin- 
tosh defines liberty to be security against 
wrong. But the object of law is security, or 
protection. Therefore, liberty is the product 
of law. And any man, native or foreign, 
who hoists a red flag in this country, in op- 
position to our union flag — that flag for 
which more blood was shed than any other 
flag that waves beneath the eternal dome of 
heaven — ought to be screwed down in the 
bottom of hell with rusty screw-taps without 
oil or grease. 

JSTo, no, not law, neither natural, divine, 
nor human — but it is idleness, one of the 
seven deadly sins, the devil's cushion and 



LIGHTS AND SHADOWS. 19 

pillow, that hampers, restrains and enslaves 
men, and directs their course ; for it diseases 
the mind, contaminates and rusts the soul, 
saps confidence, blights manhood, makes 
men cowards, and compels the idler to ex- 
claim with Satan, — 

"Which way I fly is hell, 
Myself am hell." 

OVER-GROWN INFANTS. 

A Union general was riding up to the rear 
of his forces at the battle of Antietam when 
he saw from the front rank a tall soldier 
start and in double quick time make his way 
to the rear. The general was astonished, 
and, looking at him for a moment, said: 
" Halt, sir ! Go back to your regiment." 
The fellow stopped, commenced to cry, and 
said: " General, I can't; I am a coward, 
and I told them I was a coward when they 
drafted me in the army." "Well," said the 
general, " if I was a coward, I would not be 
a great baby. Go back, sir." "Well, I wish 
I was a baby, and a gal baby at that." 

Ridiculous ! Yes, but is it half as ridiculous 
as to see over-grown infants who are forever 



20 trisi^er's i,ecture on 

doing nothing but criticising God and man— 
grumbling, complaining, and whimpering 
around: "We are hampered by law. Our 
personal liberties are abridged. We are 
curbed and restrained, and can not have 
things our way. Mr. Legislator, you make 
our taxes too high. You pay no attention to 
our petitions. You ought to have your 
heads mashed. Mr. Capitalist, there is too 
much poverty, inequality, and unsophisti- 
cated cussedness in this land. This is a dreary 
world." 

Thackeray says the world is a looking- 
glass, and gives back to every one the reflec- 
tion of himself. 

Many men worry more about things that 
are small to them, than they do from failing 
to see that alligator in the egg. 

Men must recognize the fact that the mass 
is made up of individuals, and as the indi- 
vidual is, so is society — so is the nation. 

BREVITIES. 

One reason why so many people find their 
business at a stand-still is that they stand still 
themselves. 



IvlGHTS AND SHADOWS. 21 

The parrot is rather a pretty bird, with a 
hooked bill. Many people have a similar 
nose and they are always found sticking it 
into other people's business. 

The Devil lost his position by kicking up 
a row. Many people do the same thing 
now-a-days. 

One who would be happy, let him spend 
his evenings with his family. A cat in a 
strange garret is always getting into trouble. 

It is strange to find so many that are 
moral in daylight, go to the Devil and the 
dives after dark. 

The home of a drunkard reminds one of 
the terrible effects of a cyclone. 

A camel will take enough water at one 
time to last for several days, but many peo- 
ple must wet their whistles at every saloon, 
and then get up in the morning with their 
"copper" hot. 

The centipede is a worm found in the 
tropics. It has numerous legs, each one of 
which has a sting. Where it crawls over its 
victim the flesh falls off. There are animals 
more dangerous, assuming the shape of men, 
who take the last loaf of bread from their 



22 trisi/er's lecture on 

children to the corner saloon to purchase a 
glass of " dynamite/' then return and kick 
their wives and children out into the storm. 

Idleness, drunkenness, and laziness were 
all brought up in the same school and belong 
to the same family. They lie, gossip, and 
seek to undermine their neighbor's business. 

There is only one thing that can be pro- 
duced from nothing — and that is a falsehood, 
and it returns to the same source. It is not 
necessary to clothe truth, but falsehood 
needs a new suit of clothes every time it 
makes its appearance. 

To keep out ot trouble, keep out of debt. 
There is only one satisfaction for the debtor. 
If he should get sick his creditors will be his 
watchers, if he dies, his mourners. 

Prosperity and Adversity met on the road 
one day. Adversity asked the other the 
cause of his success. Prosperity replied : 
" When you get further on your journey you 
will meet Labor and Economy and they will 
tell you all about it." 

One who kindly submits to being told of 
his faults is on the road to reform. One who 
will flatter you will make sport of you when 



RIGHTS AND SHADOWS. 23 

your back is turned. We are all laboring 
and advising mankind to do better. If we 
were to spend the effort upon ourselves, 
wouldn't we be a world of saints ? If a man 
is ever found who practices just what he 
preaches he should be sent to Barnum's 
Museum. 

The birds are singing, the floweis are 
blooming, nature is dressed in all her glory ; 
yet, man is complaining. Nature smiles, — 
man frowns. The rich are restless, the poor 
dissatisfied. Fortune may favor the few, 
but happiness is free for all, if all would but 
look within for it. 

Goldsmith says : 

" Vain, very vain, my weary search to find 
That bliss which only centers in the mind." 

Pope says : 

" Virtue alone is happiness below." 

Man wants everything free, but when free 
he will not have it. It ceases to be a luxury, 
ye know. Don't you think it would be a 
good idea for us to have free whisky — then 
water would be a good beverage for Young 
America. 



24 TRISI,ER'S t^CTURE ON 

. The ancients worshiped dogs and cats 
with certain peculiar spots and stripes. But 
the civilized world, to-day, worship the 
almighty dollar. 

Labor and Capital should shake hands and 
quit their quarreling. Capital forgets that 
Labor creates its wealth. Labor forgets that 
Capital gives it employment. Demagogues 
have broken the chords of confidence be- 
tween Labor and Capital. 

Demagogues, Communists, Socialists, An- 
archists, Idlers, Gamblers and Gossipers have 
all chartered a special, lightning, hell-bound 
train, and they all have through tickets. 

UNEQUAL CONDITIONS. 

The so-called sages of all ages have theo- 
rized upon the unequal distribution of wealth 
and conditions of mankind, only to derive 
their sociology from fallacies of a so-called 
philosophy exploded times without number. 
I undertake to remark that the great masses 
of socialists, or so-called labor extremists, 
have been moved and influenced by self- 
seeking demagogues, who possess a wonderful 
faculty of imagination, which transcends 



UGHfS AND SHADOWS. 25 

real and possible things, but whose ideas are 
fragmentary and incoherent, and premises 
illogical. They have stirred up a feeling of 
discontent by *the notion that men are 
wronged who have not a share with the rich, 
and by prefacing their discussions of social 
and labor questions with declarations of love 
for the working-class, and sympathy for the 
pcor — a feeling which is natural among all 
men. And suffice it to say that it is the op- 
posite of proof of the supernatural wisdom to 
discover a cure for that which has existed 
from time immemorial. 

The leader of the reaction against our 
social system, to-day, is Henry George. He 
asks, " Why this vice and wretchedness 
among the poor? Why have they not equal 
happiness with the rich. Because society is 
unjust, conditions unequal. Because one 
man owns a thousand acres while his neigh- 
bor is famishing." His remedy is, " Eight 
the injustice ; make property common as air 
is common, and sunlight, and starlight ; make 
conditions equal as nature made them equal, 
and all this poverty will be swept away and 
misery will be gone." 



26 TRisivER's i/ecture on 

But the theory rests on false premises. 
Nature never made conditions equal, Mr. 
George. The obliquity and the oblateness 
of the earth, the inclination and constant 
parallelism of its axis, the irregularities of 
its surface, engender various conditions of 
climate, and multifarious varieties of animal 
and vegetable life. These foster continual 
inequalities among men as regards their 
physical, intellectual and social being. Had 
you created this wonderful mechanism of 
worlds, Mr. George, and made this all one 
vast level plain, no mountains, no valleys, 
climate equal, men equal in body and brain, 
your theory might obtain. 

Go back through the long, dim vista of the 
geological ages, and notice the multitudinous 
changes that have taken place, the continual 
evolution and progression of the creation of 
all forms, — inanimate and animate — in an 
unbroken series, from the lowest, simplest, 
and most homogeneous, by successive, slight, 
but numerous, continuous differences, or 
differentiations, through infinite gradations, 
up to the highest, most complex, and heter- 
ogeneous forms ; notice how each species was 



RIGHTS AND SHADOWS. 27 

continually striving for supremacy, the very 
elements, as it were, fighting among them- 
selves, and you behold an actual warfare in 
the whole range of organic life, a survival of 
the fittest. Were it not so this would not be 
a progressive world, a progressive life, no 
incentive to effort — no stimulus to the de- 
velopment of latent power ! 

Now, I put the question, Why does sloth, 
vice, and wretchedness prevail in this land ? 
And I hear the echo coming from the Idlers, 
" Poverty." I go to yon lowly burial place, 
beneath whose surface rests the moulder- 
ing remains of a drunkard and criminal, 
one who possessed a heart overflowing with 
the milk of benevolence, the spring-time of 
whose life was hallowed by high and lofty 
aspirations, and I ask, why this human 
wreck? And again I hear the echo coming 
from the Idlers, " Poverty." Then, I pro- 
ceed to ask how comes so much poverty ? 
And all the Socialists, Anarchists and Dem- 
agogues join in the chorus, and I hear the 
echo coming from thousands of mumuring 
voices : " Pov-er-ty." Now the very ele- 
ments of sin and wretchedness, three black 



28 ^risi^er's lecture on 

angles, can no longer withstand the pangs 
and remorse of conscience, and arise, and 
speak aloud, in emphatic language, " We, In- 
toxicants, Licentiousness, and Laziness are the 
primal cause of all this vice and crime — this 
poverty and inequality." 

What gives property its value? The 
sweat of some man's face — of some man's 
brain. Yonder marsh is worthless. Irrigate 
it and it teems with richness. Is it right 
when one man gives it value for all to enjoy 
equally the product of his labor ? Industry 
deserves more than laziness. Great capacity 
deserves more than mean capacity, for this 
is the eternal law of creation. 

Injudicious remedy ! It offers nothing to 
give hope to the earnest workman who 
would rise by his superior energies. It 
promises him instead of daily bread earned 
by the sweat of his brow, unearned, gilded 
ginger bread; Tenderloin of Beef, Braised 
with Mushrooms ; Cold, Sugar-Cured Ham ; 
Boned Turkey, with Jelly ; Saratoga Chips ; 
Vanilla Ice Cream ; Charlotte Eusse ; White 
Mountain Cake ; Egg Jumbles, Chocolate 
Macaroons, and all the elegant niceties that 



RIGHTS AND SHADOWS. 29 

co aid gratify the appetite of the most fasti- 
dious epicurean. 

Were property common, conditions equal, 
who should dwell on Suwanee's verdant 
banks ? Who on the shores of the Hudson ? 
Who should choose? Who decide? Would 
there be no favoritism, no dissatisfaction ? 
Ah, behind this work of Socialism flashes the 
bayonets. We hear the marshal music of 
war, the roar of hostile cannon, the shriek of 
shot and shell. We see death upon every 
breeze, dark volumes of smoke rising from 
the ruins. Red flags are flaunting their folds 
o'er a benighted land. Millions in arms — 
hep, hep, hep — marching in solid phalanx to 
the carnival of death and the grave of con- 
stitutional liberty ! 

Equalize conditions and every motive to 
effort and incentive to improvement would 
die. Voiceless yet would be the golden harp 
of Shakspeare, silent the song of Milton, no 
philosophy written by Benjamin Franklin, 
by George Eliot ; the gentle Charles Lamb 
would have written no charming essays, made 
no immortal jokes; no Goldsmith's Vicar 
of Wakefield, nor Defoe's Robinson Crusoe ; 



30 trisler's lecture on 

Thackeray would never have scorched 
snobbery; Dickens would never have met 
the Wellers and Mrs. Nickleby, nor Mr. 
Mantinelli ; dead would be the names of 
Irving, Longfellow, Whittier, Holmes, Haw- 
thorne,Lowell and Emerson ; unknown the 
peerless and deathless names of Washington, 
Lincoln and Garfield ; unreared our temples 
of learning that tower as noble monuments 
from whose summits gleam the beacon-light 
of hope, and wrapped in the shadows of a 
dream undreamt this mighty civilization, 
were it not for the principle that man is, and 
of right, ought to be entitled to the product 
of his own labor, the labor of his hand and 
of his brain. 

I have but one construction of equality : 
Equality of condition, never; but eternal 
equality of privilege — of privilege forever 
and aye ! Equality of privilege to be a Van- 
derbilt, if one can, to be a Grant, if one can, 
to be a Beecher, if one can. This principle 
it was that gave us our liberty, that handed 
the instant lightnings down to Lincoln, that 
stormed those heights at Lookout ; equality 
of privilege, and the tattered battle flags 



RIGHTS AND SHADOWS. 31 

torn by the shells at Yorktown, at Shilo, at 
Gettysburg; the monuments of those who 
fell on the furrowed fields where our heroes 
fought for the" eternal rights of men — 
call upon us to preserve this principle for- 
ever. 

This is a world of war. War is the heri- 
tage of man. Success is achieved by fighting 
for it. God has ordained that man should 
earn his bread by the sweat of his brow. 
This life is a survival of the fittest, the fittest 
survives, the better man wins. When you 
go forth to the battle of life, sharpen your 
" battle ax." If you don't, your neighbor 
will, and cut your head off with it. The 
destinies of men are in accordance with 
their efforts. A man can sit down upon a 
red-hot stove, or suffer the mortification of 
being kicked by a mule, or stung by the "hot 
end" of a wasp, but just tell him he's a lazy 
good-for-nothing and he is ready to fight. 
There is more efficacy in pluck than in luck. 

It is not in birth, nor rank, nor state, 

But the u get up and get," that makes men great. 

Mr. Can't never accomplished anything, 
neither did old Mrs. Can't. In fact, the 



32 trisi,er's lecture on 

whole Can't family do nothing more than 
help to fill up space. 

" I Can " climbs to the mountain top, 

And plows the billowy main ; 
He lifts the hammer in the shop 

And draws the saw and plane. 

Then say " I Can! " Yes, let it ring; 

There is a volume there : 
There's meaning in the eagle's wing: — 

Then soar and do and dare. 

THE HOME. 

If you doubt your ability to accomplish 
your object, don't undertake it; you will fail 
if you do. Don't undertake anything unless 
your determination is equal to the task you 
are to perform. If you would better your 
condition do not take too much of your 
neighbor's advice, as that is what he is trying 
to do. It is folly to count on certainties 
growing out of possibilities, for they do not 
often occur amongst the probabilities. It is 
even a dangerous proposition to declare a 
certainty until it has developed into a fact. 

Don't be too sure of your sweetheart — 
you may get left like the gentleman did with 
Letty and Hildegonde. He had completely 



LTGHTS AND SHADOWS. 33 

captivated both — and knew full well, sooner 
or later, he had to choose between them. 
But when he thought of life with one, it 
made him long for the other; besides, to 
break a woman's heart should horrify a 
heathen. What must he do — go to Salt 
Lake City? It really seemed to him a case 
where bigamy was a duty. But when the 
difficulty was ended, he said : 

" Kind friends, the die is cast, 
Oh take me out and bake me ! 
I've popped to both the girls at last 
And neither one would take me ! " 

Marriages were formerly considered mu- 
tual ; both were to work together to build up 
the home. Nowadays it means a host of 
servants, a piano, and a large bank ac- 
count. 

I like a girl that knows how to cook a 
beefsteak, and entertain company, and write 
a novel, and paint a picture, and teach a 
school, and sing a song, and harness a horse, 
and row a boat, and fire a rifle, and make a 
patriotic speech. That is the girl for me, 
and if I don't get her — I — well — I suppose I 
shall have to give her up. 



34 TRISIfER'S I,ECTURE ON 

Let your home be ever so homely it is a 
heaven to feel that you dwell in peace. 

A woman who is always talking about 
dresses, theaters, parties, and balls, and 
otherwise complaining and scolding, will 
squander her husband's salary, and make 
him feel rather diminutive. 

I am reminded of a certain twain whose 
home was made desolate and unhappy by 
extravagance and continual vexations. The 
husband dies. In a few months the widow, 
through remorse of conscience, becomes 
anxious to communicate with him, goes to a 
spiritualist, has his spirit called up and they 
talkthusly: "Oh, John; are you happy?" 
"Yes." "Are you very happy, John?" — 
"Yes." "Are you happier than when you 
were with me, John? " — " Oh, yes." " Well, 
where are you, John ? " — " In hell." 

Fault finding engenders alienations, Mrs. 
Caudle, and makes your next dress much 
longer — in coming, yet much shorter when 
it does come; and poorer in quality; and 
thus of everything else. Methinks you cut 
your nose off to spite your face, Mrs. Caudle. 
Well, bless my soul, there is Mr. Caudle; 



RIGHTS AND SHADOWS. 35 

pardon me, I had almost forgotten you. I 
believe you had some trouble about the but- 
ton. Yes. Pretty much always sometimes 
most generally getting into trouble. Yes. 
Please allow your humble servant to give 
you a prescription : " More work and less 
talk; quit sitting around; get out and ac- 
complish something;" then you can say : 

" Now my task is smoothly done, 
I can fly or I can run." 

I havn't very much sympathy for these 
hen-pecked, broom-sticked men, for it is 
generally prima facie evidence that they are 
neglecting their business. 

The sweetest type of heaven is a home 
where contentment reigns supreme, and 
where all is joy and peace and love. You 
remember when two regimental bands were 
hurling responsive and defiant strains at each 
other, at last one of thenTstruck up "Home, 
Sweet Home ! " And to that challenge the 
enemy had no defiance ; all they could do 
was to join their strains also with the strains 
of their foemen in " Home, Sweet Home ! " 

Home ! what tender associations cluster 
thick around that endearing word! No 



36 TRIER'S LECTURE ON 

man, in all his weary wanderings ever goes 
out beyond its overshadowing arch. Let 
him stand on the surf-beaten coast of the 
Atlantic, or roam over western wilds, and 
every dash of the wave or murmur of the 
breeze will whisper Home, Sweet Home ! 
Let him down among the glaciers of the 
north and even there thoughts of home, too 
warm to be chilled by the eternal frosts, will 
float in upon him. Let him rove through 
the green, waving groves and over the sunny 
slopes of the South and in the smile of the 
soft skies, in the kiss of the balmy breeze, 
home will live again. It is a green spot in 
memory, an oasis in the desert, the school of 
individual character, of civilization, the in- 
dex of heaven. 

In the heyday of life man rows against 
the tide and enjoys the ride. In old age he 
floats down the stream of time and lands 
safely in the harbor, where the waters are 
placid and the storm king is heard no more. 

LIFE IS A DRAMA. 

Life is a drama. We come upon the stai^e 
of action quite early in our infancy. We 



RIGHTS AND SHADOWS. 37 

open our eyes with great expectations. We 
gaze out through the windows of our soul 
upon the visible, external world, and every 
day find out something new, make some 
new discovery. God has endowed us with 
faculties and latent powers which by a proper 
development are to make us complete be- 
ings. But it is the use we make of the 
powers entrusted to us, which constitutes 
our only just claim to respect. He who 
employs his one talent aright is as much to 
be honored as he to whom ten talents have 
been given. There is really no more personal 
merit attaching to superior intellectual pow- 
ers than there is in the succession to a large 
esfate. How are those powers used, how 
is that estate employed ? It is possible for 
the mind to accumulate large stores ot 
knowledge without any useful purpose. 
Pestalozzi held intellectual training by itsell 
to be pernicious. An often quoted expression 
at this day is that " Knowledge is power ;" 
but so, also, are fanaticism, despotism 
and ambition. Knowledge of itself, unless 
wisely directed, unless it strikes and feeds 
in the soil of the rightly governed will, and 



38 TRISI^KR'S I.KCTURE on 

is fortified by sound principles and right 
habits, might merely make bad men more 
dangerous, and the society in which it was 
regarded as the highest good, little better 
than a pandemonium. 

A MAN'S THE DEGREE FOR A' THAT. 

A complete man must be more than a 
learned man ; he must be an educated man. 
Education implies more than mere learning 
or book knowledge. A degree is not the 
index of an education. Nowadays it is not 
a very good index of learning. I undertake to 
say that degrees, diplomas and honorary 
certificates have no intrinsic significance. 
Many Doctors of Philosophy, so-called, and 
Masters of Art, so-called, leave their Alma 
Maters, go out into practical life and 
make deplorable failures ; while many stu- 
dents of lower rank in college, having no 
literary laurels, go out into practical life and 
rise high above their mistaken superiors. 
Diplomas and degrees would indeed be quite 
worthy and honorable, were they conferred 
on the completion of a full and definite 
amount of work uniform in all institutions 



RIGHTS AND SHADOWS. 39 

so empowered. But the truth is, that in dif- 
ferent institutions, the curriculums leading to 
the same degree are 'differentiated by very 
important studies and a great amount of im- 
portant work. There are, indeed, a great 
number of institutions whose diplomas, in 
first class institutions would not be accepted 
in lieu of the preparatory course, would not 
give one freshman rank. Therefore, I say 
that a degree in many cases does not mean 
what it ought to mean. 

I remember one time there came to the 
Ohio Wesleyan University from some infe- 
rior institution, a graduate who desired to 
take the Post Graduate Course. He had the 
degree A. B. and thought A. M. from the 
Ohio Wesleyan University would give him a 
good deal of fame. He introduced himself 
to the President, told his purposes, showed 
his highly ornamented diploma, and asked to 
take the Post Graduate Course. " Your in- 
stitution does not rank with ours," said the 
President, " we shall have to examine you 
and put you where you belong." The ex- 
amination was rather humiliating, for he 
absolutely could not reach the freshman 



40 trisi^kr's I^CTURE on 

class. He had taken some of the elements 
of science, had a little smattering of language, 
had translated a few easy latin lessons by 
riding on a pony, had delivered a " cut and 
dried," borrowed, graduation oration, and 
being flattered and ' puffed up ? with egotism, 
then thought to render his name immortal, 
which he unfortunately did. The most con- 
spicuous thing about this fellow was his 
dress. He wore a very short coat, very tight 
pantaloons, a very high collar, a very big 
necktie, very thick soled, one-toed shoes, a 
cane, and an eye glass. They called him a 
dude, ye know. He became acquainted with 
one of the University girls and insisted on 
escorting her home from church. Proceed- 
ing, he felt dudey and said : " What would 
you do if you were I and I were you, ye 
know ? " u Well," she said, " if I were you, 
ye know, I would throw away that vile 
cigarette, cut my cane up into fire-wood, 
wear my watch chain underneath my vest, 
and stay at home at night and pray for 
brains." He reminded me of the boy that 
wanted to join church. The preacher asked 
him what evidence he had that he was a fit 



UGHT^S AND SHADOWS. 41 

subject to become a member of church. "I 
know very well I am a fit subject/' said the 
boy, " for last night I had a vision, and in my 
vision I saw a ladder standing upright, and 
I heard a voice coming from the angels, and 
saying unto me, 'climb, Jim, climb;' and I 
started up the ladder. Then I heard another 
voice coming from the angels, and saying 
unto me, " climb, Jim, climb ; ' and I climbed 
some more. Then I heard a voice coming 
from Christ, saying unto me, ' climb, Jim, 
climb;' and I climbed to the top of the lad- 
der and stood on the last round — and that 
did not extend quite up to heaven. Finally 
I heard a voice coming from God, saying 
unto me, 'jump, Jim, jump;' and, gewhif, 
but I did get the blamedest fall." 

Dudes are the progeny of the babboon, 
the missing link between them and the hu- 
man race. Not having sufficient intelligence 
to entitle them to the name of either. 

After all is said w T ith reference to different 
institutions, degrees and diplomas, suffice it 
to say that the great, fundamental, essential, 
all-important, vital, sine-qua-non prerequisite 
in all learning, and in all education, is the— 



42 ?RISI,ER*S I,£CfURfi Otf 

scholar — himself. Because one is a graduate 
of Harvard College is no reason why he is the 
brightest star of the Pleiades, the center of the 
social, intellectual and moral universe, and 
the rest of mankind but planets and aster- 
oids. Because one attended a preparatory 
institution, or albeit, never attended any in- 
stitution, is no reason why he may not be a 
man of tremendous power and influence 
among his fellow men. Robert Burns says : 
" A man's a man for a' that." Allow me to 
say with Robert Burns, that a man's the 
teacher, the institution, the Alma Mater 
for a' that A man's the diploma, a man's 
the degree for a' that and a' that. A. M., 
written on one's eyes, on the windows of 
his soul, that is the degree of genuine worth, 
that is the index of ability, manhood and 
power. 

EDUCATION ETERNAL. 

Education has reference to the whole man, 
the body, the mind, the heart, and it covers 
the whole area of life. It is not confined to 
book-knowledge, nor is it confined to the 
present period of life. For aught we know 



LIGHTS AND vSHADOWS. 43 

it may be continued in heaven. Mind may 
expand and intensify through eternity. The 
affections may grow in beauty and fervor 
through innumerable ages. We learn the 
elements of things below, above we will study 
their essence. Education is a work of pro- 
gress. We progress only by efforts. Let 
our efforts go on. 

While fleets may sink, store-houses con- 
sume and riches fade, the stores of knowl- 
edge we gather, if fortified aright, will be 
permanent and enduring and as unfading as 
the constant flow and perpetual roar of the 
Niagara, aye, and live while roll the cycles of 
eternal ages. 

BULWARKS OF KNOWLEDGE. 

Let me now notice some of the bulwarks 
of knowledge or fundamental elements of 
education. 

1. One great bulwark of knowledge and 
important element in education is character. 
Character is human nature in its best form, 
worth of soul and wealth of heart, the great 
desideratum of life. Other agencies are in- 
termittent like the revolving light, which, 



44 TRISIyER'S mcture on 

after a time of brightness, goes out into a 
period of darkness. But the radiance of 
character is as perpetual as a star. Charac- 
ter is power in a much higher sense than 
knowledge, for it commands the respect, 
good-will and confidence of mankind, and 
that is the life-blood of success. 

Canning wisely said : " My road must be 
through character to power." And so of all 
the attributes of human nature, personal 
character commands the most influence upon 
the individual, upon society and upon the 
world. In some cases it seems to act as a tal- 
ismanic or supernatural force. "If I but 
stamp on the ground in Italy," said Pompey, 
"an army will appear." At the voice of 
Peter the hermit, as described by the histo- 
rian, Europe arose and precipitated itself 
upon Asia. The very names of some men 
are like the sound of a trumpet. When the 
Douglass lay mortally wounded on the field 
of Otterburn, he ordered his name to be 
shouted still louder than before, saying that 
there was a tradition in his family that a dead 
Douglass should win a battle. His followers 
inspired by the sound gathered fresh courage 



LIGHTS AND SHADOWS. 45 

rallied and conquered ; and thus in the words 
of the Scottish poet : 

44 The Douglass dead, his name hath won the field." 

There have been some men whose greatest 
conquests were achieved after they them- 
selves were dead. Character is of the nature 
of immortality. It lives on through the 
ages. And thus Plato and Socrates, David 
and Solomon, yet have their influence and 
still speak to us as from their tombs. 

2. Another positive element of education is 
energetic perseverance. One should have the 
blaze of activity and the steady glow of per- 
sistent industry. Work must have purpose as 
well as effort before it becomes industry. Self- 
help becomes fruitful only when it is enduring. 
Very much as Sir Fowell Buxton says, " The 
great difference between men, between the 
feeble and the powerful, the great and the in- 
significant, is energy, invincible determination , 
a purpose once fixed and then death or vic- 
tory ! That quality will do anything that 
can be done in this world, and no talents, 
no circumstances, no opportunities, w T ill make 
a two-legged creature, a man, without it." 



46 trisi^kr's mcture on 

One who would be successful must "paddle 
his own canoe " without the aid of friends. 

" Voyager upon life's sea, 

To yourself be true ; 
And where'er your lot may be, 

Paddle your own canoe. 
Never, though the winds may rave, 

Falter nor look back, 
But upon the darkest wave 

Leave a shining track. 

" Nothing great is lightly won, 

Nothing won is lost ; 
Every good deed nobly done 

Will repay the cost ; 
Leave to heaven in humble trust, 

All you will to do ; 
But if you succeed you must 

Paddle your own canoe." 

3. Another positive element of education 
is courage ; not physical courage, not simply 
the courage displayed amid the roar of shot 
and shell where death is upon every breeze, 
but high, moral courage ; the courage to 
speak the truth, to be just and honest; the 
courage to be yourself, to exercise your own 
powers; the courage to speak your own 
thoughts, to elaborate your own convictions, 
to walk a highway of the right in spite of 



tlGHTS AND SHADOWS. 4? 

jeer and taunt, neither stopped by foe nor 
swerved by friend. It is the strong and cour- 
ageous men who guide and rule the world. 
Their lives are like a track of light and their 
energy and intrepid bravery continue to be 
the inspiration of succeeding generations. 
Every enlargement of the domain of knowl- 
edge which has made usbetter acquainted with 
the heavens, with the earth, and with our- 
selves has been established by the energy, 
devotion and courage of the great martyr 
spirits of the past, — Galileo, Kepler, Coper- 
nicus, Luther, Wesley, Loyola, Socrates and 
a host of others, who, however much they 
have been opposed by their contemporaries, 
now rank among those whom the enlight- 
ened of the human race most delight to 
honor. 

Again, men often conquer difficulties be- 
cause they feel they can. And their confi- 
dence in themselves inspires the confidence 
of others. When Csesar was at sea, a storm 
began to rage, and the captain of the ship 
which carried him became unmanned by fear. 
The vessel heaved and groaned under the 
dreadful weight and force of the angry waves 



48 trisi,kr's i,e:cotre ON 

and foaming waters ; and while the wind was 
raging and the billows dashing and the 
masts were being broken the brave, un- 
daunted spirit looked up at the affrighted 
captain and cried, u What art thou afraid of? 
Thy vessel carries Csesar." And, so to speak, 
the courage of the brave man is contagious 
and carries others along with it; His stronger 
nature awes weaker natures into silence, or 
inspires them with his own will and purpose. 
4. Fourthly, — a great and positive element 
in education is faith. Doubt is always para- 
lyzing; faith is vitalizing. Doubt may break 
down error or expose folly; but faith is 
necessary to find truth and build up strength 
and enthusiasm of life. Doubt is a restless 
sea, rising and falling, but never moving or 
impelling forward ; faith is a favorable breeze 
which fills the sails and moves as well as 
floats the vessel, and enables the helmsman 
to keep her headed homeward. Doubt can 
never be an end in itself; at best, it can be 
only a station where we spend a night on 
our way homeward to the truth. It ought 
to be temporary, provisional. It may be 
used as a foil which teaches us how to wield 



UGHTS AND SHADOWS. 49 

the sword of faith. It may mark the unac- 
cented syllables in our thinking; but the 
ictus must be put upon actual belief. You 
should not ask yourself what you doubt, but 
what you believe. Learn not so much when 
to say no, as when to say yes. Build on 
what you have, not on what you lack. And 
so, look up, not down; look forward, not 
back; look out, not in. 

5. Finally, great elements are cheerfulness, 
patience, hope. Perthes wrote to a despond- 
ent young man : " Go forward with hope 
and confidence. We must ever stand up- 
right, happen what may, and for this end we 
must cheerfully resign ourselves to the va- 
ried influences of this many-colored life." 
Cheerfulness recounts its successes, despond- 
ency its reverses. Cheerfulness should ac- 
company patience, which is one of the main 
conditions of happiness and success in life. 
" He that will be served," says George Her- 
bert, " must be patient." It was said of the 
cheerful and patient King Alfred, that " good 
fortune accompanied him like a gift of God." 
Marlborough's expectant calmness was great, 
and a principal secret of his success as a 



50 TRISI,ER*S LECTURE ON 

General. " Patience will overcome all things/' 
he wrote in 1702. In the midst of a great 
emergency, while baffled and opposed by his 
allies, he said : " Having done all that is 
possible, we should submit with patience." 
Last and perhaps chiefest, is hope, the most 
common of possessions ; for, as Thales, the 
philosopher, said: "Even those who have 
nothing else, have hope." Hope has been 
styled " the poor man's bread." It is also 
the sustainer and inspirer of great deeds. It 
is recorded of Alexander the Great that, 
when he succeeded to the throne of Macedon, 
he gave away among his friends the greater 
part of the estates which his father had left 
him ; and when Perdiccas asked him what he 
reserved for himself, Alexander answered, 
"the greatest possession of all — hope !" Then, 

" Through childhood, through manhood, 
Through life to the end, 
Struggle bravely and stand 
By your colors, my friend ; 
Only yield when you must, 
Never " give up the ship ; " 
But fight on to the last, 
With a stiff upper lip." 



RIGHTS AND SHADOWS. 51 

THE MAGNANIMOUS taAN. 

As we sum up the elements of education 
in all its fullness and imagine them dis- 
played in one stalwart figure, which we have 
undertaken to describe inductively, we behold 
our hero, great colossal, magnanimous man ! 
Giant, intrepid spirit ! Able to face and 
fight the battles of a world of conflict and 
of w^ar, as though within his veins there 
flowed the blood of a hundred kings. No 
power under the eternal stars can sink him 
beneath the waters. . For, with knowledge 
fortified by character, perseverance, courage, 
faith, cheerfulness, patience and hope, he 
walks onward o'er the boisterous waves, on 
through the rugged cliffs that meet and 
mock the innumerable billows of life's sea, 
reaches the harbor of honor and fame, scales 
the heights, and the world shall know his 
power and name. 

Above his intellectual gifts, above the 
places he is able to command, above the 
ermine he refuses, rises his integrity like 
some great mountain peak, firm as the earth 
beneath, pure as the stars above. 



52 trisler's lecture on 

AGE OF MAN. 

We live in the age of man. The age of 
preachers and teachers and tyrants is gone. 
Some men preach, some teach, some legis- 
late, some buy and sell, some farm, but all 
must be men. There are preaching men, 
but their manliness must be their godliness. 
There are teaching men, but their practical 
manhood must be more than their scholar- 
ship. There are legislative men, but their 
manhood must be equal to their knowledge 
of law and government. The solemn, long- 
faced, sanctimonious theologian whom every 
one was compelled to revere, simply because 
he was a divine, is a thing of the past. The 
self-satisfied, perfected and completed, tre- 
mendously Almighty pedagogue, who always 
wore about a ton of ice in his manner, looked 
as if he was a mediator between God and 
humanity ; knew everything, especially when 
he didn't have sense enough, if it were all 
hammered down into one conglomerate, solid 
mass, it wouldn't be enough to fill the eye- 
tooth of a mosquito, is no more. The aristo- 
cratic, lordly, haughty King who rode on a 
horse, with epaulets on his shoulders, and a 



LIGHTS AND SHADOWS. 53 

tinsel crown upon his brainless head, who 
owned the bodies and souls of men, and ruled 
the world, was made to get off the throne, 
and the people were royally seated thereon; 
the people became the sovereigns, and the 
sovereigns became the servants of the people. 
In the days of our forefathers the people had 
no rights, they had to succumb to the behests 
of somebody who claimed to be endowed with 
supernatural powers. All was hypocrisy, 
superstition, and ignorance. Men believed 
that their destinies lay in the hands of the 
confessor, to be cast for hell or heaven, as cap- 
rice might direct; the seasons were supposed 
to be under the control of spirits instead of 
immutable, natural laws ; men believed that 
a few- incantations could blast a season's 
planting or bewitch their stock; new inven- 
tions were likely to be pronounced the work 
of the devil; pardon for theft, robbery, and 
even for murder, could be bought for money ; 
in addition to these and.other things, men who 
showed the slightest disposition to doubt the 
infallibility of their spiritual adviser, or who, 
in many cases, merely incurred.the displeas- 
ure of their neighbors, could be brought to 



54 TRISIvKR'S lecture on 

trial without knowing their accusers, and 
convicted without evidence, even without 
their knowledge, of crimes involving almost 
every grade of punishment, from social ostra- 
cism to imprisonment and death. Nor were 
these results of man's ignorance and awe of 
the irresistible forces of nature confined to 
any particular church. The founder of 
Protestantism firmly believed in witchcraft, 
and in the castle at Wartburg the black stain 
still marks the wall where he threw his ink- 
bottle at the devil. Wesley as late as 1768, 
said : " The skeptic well knows, whether 
Christians know it or not, that giving up 
witchcraft is in effect giving up the Bible. " 
A few years previous, even the British par- 
liament refused to adopt the Gregorian cal- 
endar because decreed by a Catholic Pope, 
until the error in the old style was so great 
that the peasants planted their crops out of 
season. 

But all these things have passed away. We 
no longer believe that vegetables grow better 
in ground prepared by a spade because it has 
the form of a cross, or that a voyage is more 
prosperous in a sailing vessel, because its 



tIGHTS AND SHADOWS. 55 

masts have the same figure. In the corner 
of the church the box is no longer found to 
receive accusations of witchcraft. We no 
longer believe that hell is in the sun, and that 
the spots are occasioned by congregated 
masses of the lost. Rare natural phenomena 
are no longer attributed to miraculous causes, 
nor are they longer believed to foretell 
famine, pestilence, and war. The condition 
of the farmer's cattle depends more upon 
their food and shelter than upon the impre- 
cations of his neighbors or the caprice of 
spirits. It is more essential that seed be 
planted in good ground than in any particu- 
lar sign of the moon. Liberal theology no 
longer rests upon authority, doubt is no 
longer branded as criminal, and impartial in- 
vestigation is no longer discouraged in every 
possible manner. 

On the other hand, thought and personal 
observation are beginning to be considered 
the first conditions of wisdom; faith is no 
longer the opposition of reason, but one of 
its manifestations. Such questions as that 
of the Trinity, the exact relation of the Father 
to the Son, the nature of the soul, the number 



56 TRISI^r's I,£CTORE ON 

of angels that could dance on the point of a 
cambric needle, many of them occupying the 
minds of theological philosophers for ages, 
have been supplanted by the study and dis- 
cussion of the rights of nationalities, the 
progress of republicanism and the dignity of 
labor. The surplice, the gown, and the 
expression of a so-called, artificial, solemni- 
fied dignity have lost their power as badges 
of authority. The age of darkness and human 
slavery has passed away, and we have come 
into an age of light, the age of man. 

CENTURY OF MAGNANIMOUS 
MAGNANIMITY. 

Standing here on the mountain of the nine- 
teenth century, under the dome of freedom's 
cloudless sky, and in an atmosphere of civil- 
ization, we behold as we look down the 
mountain side of centuries, and into the val- 
ley of superstition and fatalism, the graves 
of dead issues, of buried opinions, of exp] oded 
theories, of disgraced doctrines, of barbarous 
outrages ! We see the tombs of the great 
martyr spirits, Luther, Knox, Calvin, Loyola, 
Wesley, and a host of others, who gave their 



UGHTS AND SHADOWS. 57 

lives for the eternal rights of men, for freedom 
and reform. We see the monuments of 
Washington, Lincoln, and Grant, who com- 
pleted the great work of freedom ; and green 
be the memories of all the world's heroic 
souls who have fought for the liberties of 
men. They have given us free labor, free 
thought, love, affection ; these are the great 
pillars of prosperity and happiness. We are 
now on the grandest heights the world has 
ever seen. We enjoy all the advantages 
which have culminated from centuries of 
war. Men are now working, thinking in- 
vestigating, as never before, because they en- 
joy the product of their own labor. This is 
iiadeed a century of magnanimous magnani- 
mity, which eclipses the past as the sun in 
his majesty outshines the dim reflection of 
the moon. No other period in all historic 
time has been so fraught with such revolu- 
tionary discoveries, such startling events, 
such profound advances in philosophic and 
scientific research, and such surprising me- 
chanical inventions, since the dawn of civili- 
zation. This progressive march of intellect, 
of man's mastery over uature, the recondite 



58 TRISI^ER'S LECTURE ON 

resources of God's universe now so rapidly 
unfolding themselves must indicate to you 
and to me that man is not living in vain in 
this lower sphere of human action, but that 
a still higher plane of intellectuality and 
civilization is in the ascendant, and that the 
future, so far from inspiring a feeling of 
gloom in the minds of thoughtful investi- 
gators, is bright with the portents of glorious 
possibilities and triumphs, and the consum- 
mation of grander things beyond. 

Think a moment of the progressive de- 
velopment and. wonderful achievements of 
Grecian intellect ; the culture of Athens, with 
her statesmen and philosophers, her brilliant 
poets, her artists, her historians; yet all this 
array of talent which culminated during the 
two centuries of her greatest greatness 
and fame, in the persons of Demosthenes, 
Socrates, Pythagoras, Plato and Aristotle, is 
but as the title page to the great volume of 
achievements and startling record of events 
of modern day. Demosthenes in Athens, or 
Cicero in Rome could sway the multitude as 
a cyclone moves the forest, and though we 
now look back and wonder at such mar- 



LIGHTS AND SHADOWS. 59 

velous achievements accomplished so many 
centuries ago, yet if either of those great 
rhetoricians would now drop into our midst, 
with all their pristine powders, they would be 
but an intellectual and oratorical pygmy 
by the side of our Sumners, our Clays, our 
Websters, our Calhouns, whose names are 
legions all over this great country. 

Take the best words ever utteredby a Cicero, 
or the best lines ever penned by a Homer, aid- 
ed by the embellishing powers of the finest 
translators in existence, and they bear no 
comparison to the words and stanzas of our 
own statesmen, poets and historians. We go 
into ecstasy over a massive but ridiculous 
pile of stone called a pyramid, because it is 
four thousand years old, while we scarcely 
notice a modern fountain or monument of 
the most exquisite design and finish made by 
some one we know. " ? Tis distance lends en- 
chantment to the view." 

This is an enlightened day. The curtain 
of illumination rises higher and higher while 
the battalions of thought are moving on. 
We must progress. We are every day mak- 
ing wider and deeper investigations. We 



60 TRISIvER'S LECTURE ON 

are penetrating the debths. We are scaling 
the heights. We are dynamiting through 
the barriers of truth. Let the world's mind 
go on toward the millennial dawn. 

YOUNG MEN OF MY GENERATION. 

Young men of my generation, it does not 
remain for our fathers to attempt much more 
on this theater of human action. They look 
on to see what we are determined to do. We 
are the hope of the future, and the indepen- 
dence of public liberty. It devolves upon us to 
hold on to what our ancestors have bequeath- 
ed to us. We live in a great age and in a 
great country. And though we are proud of 
our republican liberty and free institutions, 
we must not forget that there are ills within 
our bounds. There~are socialistic and centrifu- 
gal tendencies which threaten our downfall. 
But let us arise in the majesty of freedom 
and in the morning of our power, and tram- 
ple these slippery serpents of corruption un- 
der the iron heel of popular indignation. 
Let us uphold the institutions under which 
we were born; be manly and brave; fear noth- 
ing, but to do wrong; dread nothing, but to 



LIGHTS AND SHADOWS. 61 

be found recreant to our country and our 
country's God, so that when our fathers shall 
sleep in the silent dust, our institutions shall 
be free and safe. 

"God to the human soul, 

And all the spheres that roll 

Wrapped by her spirit in their robes of light, 

Hath said, 'The primal plan 

Of all the world and man 

Is Forward! Progress is your law, your right!' p 



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